Sunday, March 04, 2007

The Night Boo Got Lost


This is Boo.
One night, back when she was about 6 months old, I was running my paper route { a middle of the night paper route dovetailed nicely with my Gradual School schedule} with her and Princess Bomb in the bed of the truck. Now, Princess had taken to riding in the bed of the Ranger like a duck takes to water. I just assumed Boo would, too. Except for some initial clumsiness, which I wrote off to her being a puppy and/or gettin' pushed around by the Alpha Dominant Princess, she was doing fine. Until the night we crossed paths with "The CAT."
Now, don't get all excited. I'm not talking about a cougar, or even a bobcat. It was just a stray, domestic cat. Might even have been some one's pet that was out prowling for the night. It was moving from one place of concealment to another, and caught Boo's attention. Now, I had never seen Boo when she had seen a cat, so I didn't know of her, um, how shall I say?, antipathy, towards all things feline. She gets one look at this kitty, and she goes completely Bonkers. She starts barking furiously, frenziedly moving from one end of the bed to the other so as to keep her prey in sight, and just generally acting like a MAD DOG! Princess, as the Alpha Bitch, feels duty bound to honor Boo's alert, and takes up the call with her own barking and moving about. After I round the corner, they settle down and all is quiet, once again.
All this excitement occurred at the tail end of the route, so I just finished up and went home. When I got out of the cab and went to drop the tailgate to let the girls out..."Where's Boo?" I literally asked Princess, out loud. And I think I was so shocked, and tired, I halfway expected an answer.
I hop back in the cab, fired up the engine and began to retrace the route, backwards. I was scanning the roadsides and sidewalks in the pre-dawn darkness for the Boo Girl. When I got to the street where the loathsome CAT had been spotted, there she was. Sitting in the middle of the street, looking around, tongue lolling out of her mouth. She looked at me as if to say, "Where you been, Mom? I've been right here, waitin' like a good girl. Boy, I'm thirsty!"
I slammed the truck into park, jumped out of the cab and scooped her into my arms. I was kissin' her little face, and she was lickin' my face; I'm not sure who was happier to see whom. I put her in the cab, and flicked the top off my Sonic cup. She drank the ice water so quickly she got "Brain Freeze". You ever see a dawg with "brain freeze"? It's a hoot!
The rub their tongue against the roof of their mouth, kinda like they do when they get a taste of peanut butter. But while they are doing the tongue thing, they also shake their head from side to side, very violently. And they do this until the "brain freeze" is gone. Man, the first time, every time, it's funny, I don't care who you are!
Funny thing, the reason I think Princess PUSHED Boo out of the bed of the truck in an attempt to get rid of the "interloper" is that after this incident, Princess started jumped the fence at every opportunity she got. If that's not acting out behavior, I don't know what is. Can I be a doggie psychologist, now?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well it seems to me you quilify, so go right ahead.

I'd think twice about letting Boo or Princess around cats again.

Cute story.

HollyB said...

Lainy,
I don't have Princess {isn't that a great name for a Rottie?} anymore. I moved to a smaller place, without any fence. Princess went to a new, higher fenced home.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry. Open mouth and insert foot, big time!

Flo said...

Uh huh, SURE you moved to a smaller house so you had to get rid of Princess. Sounds like some rationalizing going on there, to me. NOW who's the psychologist?

MY precious dogs (PJ and Harley) found a really cute black and white animal to play with. They like him so much they keep him close to the house so they can keep an eye on him and play any time they want.

OMG, the stench has penetrated the concrete walls and thermal windows!

Anonymous said...

Uh... totally off-topic, I am here from MAJ Z's place, where you left a comment about today's hearing. Hi! We're kinda neighbors, I'm in Nor'Tex.

I belong to SA but I understand you don't want to enlist over there quite yet. Since you are an animal lover, how about GASP? There is a link to them at soldiers' angels.

Nice blog.

phlegmfatale said...

Ah, reunited and it feels so good. Glad there was a happy ending to the losing Boo story. Oh, and you are over-qualified to be a doggie psychologist, I think. I dub thee a doggie doctor.